How to Jump-Start Your Union PDF
Preview How to Jump-Start Your Union
LESSONS FROM THE CHICAGO TEACHERS A LABOR NOTES BOOK HOW TO JUMP-START YOUR UNION HOW TO JUMP-START YOUR UNION Lessons from the Chicago Teachers Alexandra Bradbury Mark Brenner Jenny Brown Jane Slaughter Samantha Winslow A LABOR NOTES BOOK A LABOR NOTES BOOK Copyright© 2014 by Labor Education and Research Project First printing: January 2014 Second printing: October 2015 About the Publisher Labor Notes is a media and organizing project that since 1979 has been the voice of union activists who want to put the movement back in the labor movement. Through its magazine, website, books, schools, and conferences, Labor Notes brings together a network of members and leaders who know the labor movement is worth fighting for. Visit our website at www.labornotes.org. Reprints Permission is granted to workplace activists, unions, rank and-file union groups and labor studies programs to reprint sections of this book for free distribution. Please let Labor Notes know of such use, at [email protected], 718-284- 4144, or the addresses below. Requests for permission to re print for other purposes should be directed to Labor Notes. Labor Notes Labor Notes 7435 Michigan Ave. 104 Montgomery St. Detroit, MI 48210 Brooklyn, NY 11225 Cover design: Stacey Luce Inside design: Jenny Brown Cover photo: Tannen Maury ©2012 European Pressphoto Agency I Alamy Printed in Canada ISBN-13: 978-0-914093-01-5 Dedicated to Chicago's students, to the educators who are teaching them a better world is possible, and to the readers who will learn from CTU's example and go out to start their own fires. Contents Foreword 1 by Jen Johnson, Chicago Teachers Union 1 Why This Book-And How to Use It 5 2 What They Were Up Against 9 The odds against the Chicago teachers. Rahm Emanuel's anti-union plan. Chicago schools by the numbers. 3 Rank and Filers Start Doing the Union's lob 13 Organizing against school closings. Community alliances. Pushing the incumbents. A study group. Fighting discrimination. Leading.from the back of the room. Socializing to organize. 4 The Caucus Runs for Office 31 Starting with lower offices. Choosing a slate. Tracking support, building by building. Flyering, newsletter, email, Facebook, and Twitter. Fundraising. Keeping up the fight against closings and organizing at the building level during the campaign. 30,000 posters. Role-playing the answers. Relations with other caucuses. 5 Getting Organized in Every Workplace 53 A new Organizing Department. Shoring up the delegates (stewards) and union committees in each building. How to have an organizing conversation. Building an intermediate level of leader-organizers. New delegates step up. Training delegates in the nitty-gritty and the big picture. Training new leaders through internships. Handling grievances. Keeping the caucus going. 6 Community Partners 73 A relationship of equals. Calling out racism. Trainings on building strong alliances. Forming a Community Board. Campaigning at the precinct level. Agreeing to disagree. Building the Local School Councils, with parents. 7 Fighting on All Fronts 83 Refusing to open the contract. Solidarity with Wisconsin. Dealing with anti-union legislation. Going on offense to change the conversation: "Who has the money for schools? The 1%." viii HOW TO JUMP-START YOUR UNION Allying with other groups for militant rallies. Action changes the conversation again: not a longer school day but a better school day. Fighting school closings. Confrontational tactics. Making a positive proposal: "The Schools Chicago's Students Deserve." 8 Contract Campaign 111 Forming a member-to-member network. Developing demands. A big bargaining team. Building excitement at the worksites. Testing and tracking support for a strike. Phonebanking. Mass rally. Practice vote and strike vote. Talking to community supporters. Informational picketing. 9 Strike 139 Getting the whole membership on the picket line. Member-to-member accountability. Strike captains and coordinators. Explosion of community and labor support. Nailing down the details. Canvassing neighbors and parents. Daily debrief Citywide rallies. Deciding to continue the strike. Whole membership weighs the deal. 10 What They Won 159 The highlights and lowlights. Maintainingjobsfor black teachers. Maintaining core union principles. 11 Maintaining Momentum 165 National impact of the strike. Teacher uprisings elsewhere. More fights on school closings, more militant tactics. Keeping the caucus active. Getting reelected. 12 Lessons 181 What we all can learn. Appendix: Understanding the Assault 189 Public employees as scapegoats. From War on Poverty to war on teachers. Privatization through charters. The corporate reform agenda: it's about money, politics, and ideology. The attack is bipartisan: Democrats for Education Reform. The players. Attacking tenure and unions. Standardized tests and curriculum. Evaluations and merit pay. Appeasing billionaires fails. Timeline 213 Glossary 219 Acknowledgments 223 Foreword Chicago Teachers Show How It's Done by Jen Johnson I became an activist when I was teaching history at Lincoln Park High and my principal started firing union delegates. First, my mentor teacher was let go; then my union mentor, our librarian. I was untenured and scared and just being ushered into union work. After these losses I needed to do more, learn more, and shake off my fears. Luckily, I joined a small group of idealistic educators-vet eran teachers and new unionists-to form CORE, the Caucus of Rank-and-File Educators, in 2008. We set out on a mission to de fend public education in Chicago. We built a caucus that would win leadership of the Chicago Teachers Union in 2010 and lead its first strike in 25 years. How did we get to the point of going out on a nine-day strike? Why are the battle lines drawn so clearly in Chicago when it comes to public schools? The labor movement has always been "about inspiration and struggle, about ordinary people transforming the world and themselves in the process," as unionist Joe Burns wrote in his 2011 book Reviving the Strike. But our union had fallen into the same trap as most labor organizations in the last few decades: compromise and collaboration with management. Our union had protected basic job security and continued the flow of modest raises-but we hadn't done enough to oppose the destruction of public schools. Our children's schools were being closed. Our members were losing their jobs. Union-busting had come to dominate the nation al and local dialogue about education reform, with a single-mind-
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